Norway’s economy in 1998 experienced another year of growth, though it was not as strong as the preceding five years. Compared with 1997 gross domestic product grew by 2.4%, public consumption by 2.4%, private consumption by 3.8%, the consumer price index by 2.3%, and wages by as much as 5.9%. Wage growth was especially high in the public sector. An increase of 2.5% in the number of jobs until midsummer indicated an unemployment rate for 1998 of 3.2%. Consequently, the employment rate of the population’s total labour force reached 73.7%, a level never before attained. The major reason for this was the steady growth in the number of women who worked (68.3%).

Even with such comfortable percentages, Norwegians experienced a growing mistrust in the country’s near future. A representative symptom was the falling value of the Norwegian krone as measured against the U.S. dollar ($1 = about NKr 7.5) and the British pound sterling (£1 = about NKr 13). Two international situations accounted for part of the decline; low prices for Norway’s oil ($12-$13 per barrel, crude Brent) caused an immediate cut in public incomes, and the Asian financial crisis, expanding to Russia and Asia, reduced Norwegian exports to those markets. Consequently, with a view to foreign investors, the Bank of Norway from March to August raised the interest rate by as much as 4.5% but apparently with no immediate effect. A domestic reason for the decline was the instability in Parliament that was produced by the general elections in October 1997. Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik’s coalition government controlled only 42 seats of the 165 in the legislature. This government, therefore, was constantly required to compromise with one or another of the groups in the opposition, which resulted in declining confidence in the strength of the government and in the international value of the krone. With the support of two rightist parties the government managed to get its 1999 budget approved.

The fluctuations in the krone were, however, only surface troubles in the Norwegian economy in 1998. The government’s draft budget, presented to the legislature on October 5, included a surplus of NKr 56 billion intended for transfer to the Government Petroleum Fund for investments abroad. Without help from the petroleum sector, the budget of NKr 480 billion would have presented a deficit of NKr 5.5 billion. When oil prices fell below $10 a barrel (crude Brent) late in the year, the surplus intended for the Petroleum Fund was nullified with serious implications for growth. The major challenge in the Norwegian economy in 1998, however, was to maintain an almost full employment without overheating the economy, and that task was fulfilled.

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